How to Prepare ahead of time for the Gym

I looked like quite a spectacle last week.  Members might not judge my workout , but I’m sure they were judging my fashion sense, or lack thereof.

I don’t normally wear suits to the office, but I had something that required that I dress the part.  As I showed up to the gym, I headed to the restroom to change into my gym clothes.  As I changed, I realized I forgot something…my gym shoes!  🤦‍♂️

Fortunately, the workout was all rowing and ring dips, so my weightlifting shoes which I keep in my gym bag would work just fine.

As I was getting ready to put on my lifting shoes for the workout, I went to change out of my dress socks and into my athletic socks.  I rummaged through my gym bag and…nothing.  I had forgotten those too.  So, there I was, wearing weightlifting shoes with dress socks.  Yikes.

It was then I realized that it could have been a whole lot worse.  I wanted to make sure that I didn’t do that again, so I created this checklist to make sure that I don’t find myself in the same situation.  I wanted to share my process with you so that you could take this, tweak it, and make it your own if you’re anything like me!

As somebody with ADHD, I really have to be deliberate about planning my steps, otherwise I am likely to forget something I need.  This helps me prevent unnecessary trips back to my house to pick up things I have forgotten.  Some people are organized because it’s satisfying, I try to be organized because I am chaos without it.

Determine your schedule

Some people are fortunate that they have a nice, consistent schedule.  This could be something like: Go to Work at same time > Go to Gym at same time > Go Home at same time.  Others, however, may have more inconsistent schedules.  Maybe you occasionally have meetings that frequently run long which causes you to leave work at different times.  Maybe you have busy times of year at work that requires you to get in earlier which forces you to attend the 5am class, not your usual 6am class.  List out all the things you’ll need for each part of your schedule.  The trick is to visualize yourself going through your day and SEE yourself going from one part of your day to the other.

For me, here’s what my weekday schedule(s) looks like:  

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday:

5:00 AM to 6:00 AM – Coach (Except Thursday which is 5AM – 7AM)

7:00 AM to 4:00 PM – Work (Except Thursday which starts at 7:30AM)

4:30 PM to 6:00 PM (and later) – Gym

Wednesday

7:00 AM to 4:00 PM – Work 

4:30 PM to 6:00 PM – Gym

Now that we’ve roughed out our schedule and what we will need, now we’ll move onto the next step.

Simplification

As I look through all the things I need, you can group them into 4 broad categories: Gym Bag, Workout Clothes, Work Clothes, Lunch.

The goal is to come up with checklists to make sure I don’t forget anything in any of those categories.

The first thing that jumps out at me is the gym bag.  From day-to-day, the gym bag doesn’t really change.  So even though it’s several items, it’s really only one item.  Plus, I can always keep that in my car.  As long as it’s in my car or in the gym, I don’t really have to worry about it and I can’t really mess that up.  Worst case is that I forget it in the gym, and just get it next time I’m there!

One thing I do have to watch out for is that I will regularly run my knee-sleeves and wrist wraps through the laundry.  It’s always disappointing when I have forgotten my knee sleeves in the dryer on a day we’ve got heavy squats.

Next thing that I can simplify and consolidate is my lunch.  This is easy to do for me because I am a meal-prepper.  Generally I will pre-make my meals and freeze them ahead of time.  All I need to do here is pull one out of the freezer and throw it into my lunch bag and set the whole thing in the fridge so I can grab and go in the morning.  If you’re a leftover person, you can essentially do the same thing!

Looking at my attire, I typically will go from wearing gym clothes (coaching) to work clothes and back to gym clothes (to workout).  In this case, I can simply reuse the gym clothes that I coach in and wear them again when I workout (except in summer when I sweat a lot even when coaching!).  I set these out the night before so that I can roll out of bed at ~4:00 AM and throw on whatever I picked out.

For my work clothes, I am mostly business casual, which means that slacks and an oxford or polo shirt will fit the bill.  What I usually look for is some form of wrinkle resistant shirts and slacks, that way I can fold them and they don’t get wrinkled or creased.  I will usually figure out what I need to wear in a week, fold them, and store them in a packing cube.  This is nice because I can just take the packing cube and throw it into my backpack and the clothes won’t get wrinkled.  There are some very decent Amazon Basics Packing Cubes.  I have used the small size, which works well for my gym clothes, but is too cramped for my work clothes, especially as I wear heavier clothing during the colder months.  I just ordered some in medium, so I’ll see how those go.

A lot of times, I can get away with wearing my Metcons as part of business casual.  I usually keep a pair of casual-ish dress shoes in my office if needed.

Where I get into trouble is when I have to wear a suit–like this week–because there is so much more to consider.  You can’t really fold a suit into a packing cube which makes things more complicated.  What I have found is that you can find relatively inexpensive suit bags that have compartments for shoes, socks, and belt.  This is another thing you can prepare in advance so you can just grab-and-go.

So now that I’ve simplified and consolidated, I can begin to develop my checklists.  I’ll need to make sure I have both a weekly checklist and daily checklist.

Weekly Checklists

I tend to do all my laundry on the weekend, so this would be the best time to do my weekly checklists.  For each of the 4 categories listed above, I’ll create a separate weekly checklist.

Gym Bag

Workout Clothes for Each Day of Week

Meal Prepped Lunches

Work Clothes for Each Day of Week

Daily Checklists

Now that I’ve made sure to prepare everything for the week ahead, I need to also make sure I execute the night before so I am ready to go, so I have the daily checklist below:

Morning

If I have done the work ahead of time, my morning routine is straightforward:

If I have failed to prepare, my mornings can be chaotic as I’m hustling to get everything together and try to get out the door.  This is where I’m likely to forget something!